Solar Powered Water Well

20 plus years ago my dad had a water well installed at our little ranch. We didn't have power out there and had to run it on a generator every time we went out there. About a year or so ago the pump finally went out and we never got around to having it replaced. I'd like to switch it over to solar powered if it's cost effective and do able. Have any of you guys had or have done your own solar powered water well? Is this a DIY type job or best to hire someone? What's the average cost of a solar powered system? Any help and advice would be much appreciated.

Coat greatly depends on your desired water output which depends on your pump size. My buddy is lifting up to 300 gallons an hour from over 600 feet deep via a solar powered pump. His DIY cost, which is really only the solar setup as far as DIY, the pump weighs nearly 100 pounds and with all the links, it’s just not doable to remove and reinstall it. That being said, putting the new pump, solar panels, controller, and whatever else he needed to support everything, he’s about $15,000-$20,000 invested. Being in the Edward’s Aquifer means he has endless water, it just hard to get to.

Currently going thru this similar situation. The well on the front of my place is electric and has power. The well towards the back-there is no longer power there and pump is burned up. I want to convert it to solar to help take pressure off my pond. The Local well company is so busy I cant even get a quote for them to convert to solar. But I have been talking with RPS in California and they have been very responsive and fixing to pull the trigger on a complete DIY system. Depending on how deep your well is-there is also a guy up in the classifieds section here on THF that sells DIY solar systems. My well is to deep for his pumps.
Here's contact for RPS
Madison
Pump Specialist
RPS | Rural Power Systems
America's #1 Solar Pump Kits
RPSsolarpumps.com | (888) 637-4493
madison@ruralpowersystems.com

It depends on how deep your pump will be and how much you want it to pump. If you are pumping it into a storage tank and are only using it when you go there the GPM are not that big a deal and you can get by with a low GPM pump and smaller pump, wiring and pipe. It all depends on want you want and what you have to do to achieve it.

We dug up a small pond (around 25x25) years ago to use the water well to fill it with. It's not very deep but we never put anything down to try and seal the bottom. Every time we filled it up the water would vanish like magic. Our goal is just to be able to keep water in the pond yearly.

Honestly from my experience. Put in a valve chamber cistern, with over flow to the pound. Your water availability it will be a lot higher. Only way to keep a pond that’s not sealed up, is wind mill. Solar pump will eventually burn out going continuously

Thanks, what options would you guys recommend to try and seal it that won't break the bank?

bentonite

Thanks, Will definitely look into this.

Don’t take this wrong way but it may just need to be reworked if you did it yourself. I thought I could do my own, 2 hours later with dozer, I thought I made it bigger and better. I never dug deep enough to hit clay and was basically water was leaching/seeping out a top soil dam.

Hired a guy that knew what he was downing and had held every sense.

There are very cost effective deep well diaphragm solar pumps, that are smaller and lighter than a conventional submersible, but they are low volume...topping out at 1 - 1 1/2 GPM. But 1 GPM for 14 hours a day in the summer time is a LOT of water.

Helped a buddy put one in years ago. Lowered it to about 200' by hand, and it was no problem. No cutoff or switch. It runs all the time there is sunlight.

He has a 1000 gallon black poly tank up on a 16' platform that it pumps into. The tank is another 5 1/2 feet tall, and is overflowing most of the time into a horse trough, that then overflows into his stock tank.

He has a 120 v booster pump for pressure to the cabin, but event without the up, there is enough pressure to get water in the sink and slowly refill the toilet. I've been trying to get him to add another small solar panel, a battery, and a 12 volt RV pump That would give him great pressure in the cabin, without the generator running.

https://www.solar-electric.com/aquatec-swp-4000-submersible-diaphragm-pump.html

I heard old folks talking about fencing it in and putting hogs in the pond. They would wallow and seal the pond. Never seen it done, but some swore by it..

Thanks fellas for the responses. I have a friend going out there in a couple of weeks to do some dozer work and plan on having him clean up the dried up pond. I'd like to have him dig some of it back out since over the years it has filled back in some. How deep would you fellas recommend going down. It's not a big area, can probably make it around a 30x30 size.

This one (Tank) was on the ranchito I sold over in Fayette County a few years back. . It was about 12 foot deep in the middle. Nice catfish and perch tank for sure. Sure miss the fishing. Must have had a spring as it never went down over a couple feet even in the 2011 drought and it was a killer. Kinda like what we're having now. I'd build as big as you could.

Don’t know about the Edwards Aquifer being endless water. All wells into that aquifer have to be permitted. It stretches from Georgetown to Uvalde, it is large. But due to the drought, it’s now under Stage 3 restrictions. And the uncontrolled growth in Central Texas has just added to the stress on our water source.

I was able to find the well report which was installed back in 2002.

-Water static level 100ft

-Depth of pump 180ft

-Depth of well 300ft

My well, South of Bowie, produces 1/10 gpm. It goes into a 2,500 gallon rubber tank. The aquifer there has never been a problem. Doesn’t sound like much but in 20 years, we’ve never run out of water. But, several of those local shallow wells have gone dry.

I witched it and had no experience at that. I was using some bent welding rods. When one of them swung around, I marked the spot. We hit water about 75 feet down and deepened the hole another 50 feet. It is several hundred feet from the house and more than adequate for our needs.

Our power has become rather spotty at best. Because of that I have just bought a RPS 400 series solar system and will install it myself. Rather than poly pipe I am using threaded schedule 80 PVC since I have it on hand. I just had a 2800 gallon concrete tank installed to pump into for storage. It will all be gravity flow to the water troughs as it currently is now. Turns out a friend has the same setup, pumping from the same depth as mine and loves it. He is about 10 miles away so I intend to look at his setup time permitting. The concrete tank & slab cost more than the total pump package. I figure about 6.0 gallons a minute which is fine. It's strictly for livestock.

Frio

Thanks, we plan on getting a DIY system from a local member on here and give it a try. Seems like his system will work for what we need. Do you guys know what type of local places sell Bentonite? Not sure where to start looking for some that I could purchase locally.

Ours was dug to 10' about 35 years ago. It has never dried . Of course, it was positioned in a natural run off. If your pond was simply put in a bad location the only chance you have is to seal it. To answer your question, at least 10' but the deeper the better.

Thanks, looking at options on sealing it as best as I can. How well does Bentonite work for sealing?

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